General Topics a newspaper article

[paul m]

Hello Everyone. Recently another charity that I'm involved with took part in a Defeat Depression Campaign. Defeat Depression is ran by the same folks that operate this forum (MDSC). While trying to drum up some free newspaper advertising for the event a reporter asked if she could interview me. I agreed and my wife and I sat down and talked for about 2 hrs with the reporter.

Telling the story was pretty traumatic for both my wife and I as it dredged up a lot of bad memories and the final article only covers a fraction of my life due to space limitations.

However the story has been well rec'd by people, with and without a mental illness, something that surprised me. I have debated many hrs whether to share the story on here and elsewhere and finally decided that is why I talked to the reporter, to give others hope.

I'm nobody special and my life was no harder than any one else's. It's been a long journey to happiness for me. Perhaps this story will at least give others some hope. Take Care. paul m

http://www.orilliapacket.com/2016/11...e-good-and-bad

[AJ]

Thanks for sharing that very personal story Paul.

[uni]

Thank you Paul, for posting your story. I read it with interest. My heart goes out to you, and to your wife, not for the first time Going public with personal mental health issues takes a great deal of courage, and you've done it numerous times, which I admire greatly. Kudos also to Susan, who must love you or something
(And by the way, what a good photo!) Thumbs up all the way around

[paul m]

Hello AJ and Uni. Thx for your comments. It's been an interesting time sharing this story. In general it's been better rec'd by a lot of people than I would have thought. The people that I know with a mental illness had no problem with it, and I expected that. However a lot of people that I never would have expected came up to me and said: "great story, I'm so glad that you had the courage to publish it" . These people usually never said anything in public, they always wait until they could get me alone to comment. Still that's progress as the people saying so(privately) have ranged from 18-80 and that I never expected.

One other unexpected benefit is that the local family violence and mental health coordinator for the local police detachment has asked me to sit down with them for 90 min in the new yr to discuss ways to that the police can better interact with people with mental health problems. (it wasn't just the story as I'm involved in other things, but the story added to why they asked me). It will be the first time that I've been interviewed by a police officer for 90 minutes for something good LOL.

I will say that it was extremely hard on my wife. Not because of what was said or the public reaction to it, but because it dragged up so many bad memories. (she was with me and although not mentioned in the article, added facts that were important to it. ) . It even caused me to have a few nightmares (actual night time nightmares), even though this was all in my past, that part of my past was not a fun time to go through or remember.

But all's well , that ends well and both Susan and I are glad that we did it. Hopefully someone will realize that they too can get better. Take Care. paul m P.S. to Uni. Susan stays with me as she figures the worst has to be over LOL. P.P.S. while I agree the picture is a good likeness, my first thought was " when did I get that old" LOL, but thx for the comment.